Samuel Kronson (mis-spelt as Kronsow in the JC, in 1870), and described as ‘Jewish clergyman’ in the 1871 Census, was a ‘jeweller’ at his wedding in Oxford in 1872, and was still there in December 1875 when the second of his two sons was born, and described as a general dealer. Before then he was apparently succeeded by the second man missing from Lewis’s list. The JC in January 1875 reported that Rev. Manovitzs(sic), of Oxford, had been elected to serve the Exeter congregation. His name was clarified, in a JC note of July 1876, which referred to Rev. Marcus Manovitz of Exeter.

The third ‘missing’ man is a slight mystery. David Lewis refers to the fact that, in reference to ministerial activities, ‘some help was given by B. Lieberman[sic], a Jews’ College graduate, who was up at Worcester reading Oriental Languages from 1910 to 1912’. However, the Jewish Chronicle stated on 28 October 1910 that ‘Mr. B. Liebermann[sic], B.A., has been appointed Minister of the Oxford Hebrew Congregation’. He had just passed ‘the Jews’ College Third Theological Examination, qualifying him for the Jewish Ministry’, had preached in various London synagogues and had taught at a Hebrew Classes. However, in May 1912 he was one of five undergraduate signatories of a letter to the JC advocating either a Chair to be established or ‘provision be made for the residence of a Jewish minister’ – thus implying there was not one. And the JC published a long interview with him (described as ‘acting Minister of the Oxford Hebrew Congregation’), on ‘The Needs of Oxford’. In it he  argued against a minister but in favour of a Lecturer or Reader in Rabbinics. This is in fact what happened shortly afterwards.

While many of the ministers did not last long in Oxford, a few stayed for longer periods. One of the early ones, Nathan Jacobs, was there from 1845 to 1858 when he moved to south Wales, where he continued ministering. One who came to Oxford at the age of 20 in 1882 was B. J. Salomons, who eventually became minister at the Montefiore synagogue in Ramsgate. Their later lives can sometimes be traced. Samuel Kronson was in Wolverhampton in 1881 then settled for some years in Northampton as a leather agent. In the 1920s he was in the USA where he was described as a Rabbi. Marks Rosenthal was in Oxford in 1878 and left, continuing as a minister, first in Hastings, then in Australia and then in the USA. [The original articles stated that Rosenthal left Oxford for east London where he was a furrier. This was incorrect. Harold Pollins, September 2016.] Samuel Million, in Oxford in 1887, where a son was born in the following year, then also went to east London where he was described in the 1891 Census as a ’poultry killer’, thus continuing his occupation as shochet. He died in 1899 and his widow became a drapery hawker. Louis Abrahamson (said by Lewis to have gone to Rhyl from Oxford but in fact, in December 1900, was at Wrexham and went to Rhyl a few months later),  by 1911 was in Liverpool where his occupation was also a shochet, employed by the Liverpool Shechita Board (the Census enumerator had amended his description to ‘Jewish Butcher’).

The last minister before the First World War was Moses H. Segal, father of Lord Segal, who was appointed minister and shochet in May 1901 and left in 1908. The next minister was Jacob Weinberg who was appointed to minister to the enlarged congregation during the Second World War. But one man is well worth recording – Herbert Loewe – who was elected in 1913 to Exeter College but subsidised by outside contributors, primarily to look after the spiritual needs of the undergraduates. He was away in the army in the First World War but was in Oxford until 1931.